


and shivers down your spine

by lettersfromnowhere



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Day 4: Traditions, F/M, Gen, Halloween, Starmora Week, Starmora Week 2018, a mess, because I felt like it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-06-28 04:03:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15699777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lettersfromnowhere/pseuds/lettersfromnowhere
Summary: Peter figures it's high time that his team is made aware of his favorite childhood Terran holiday.





	and shivers down your spine

**Author's Note:**

> Free candy, disguises, and opportunities to scare people? Yup, Halloween is a Guardians holiday if there ever was one. ;) I'm so uncreative that the title of this is from (I kid you not) "Spooky Scary Skeletons." Don't ask. Just accept the memes. 
> 
>  
> 
> I was talking to wawa_girl as I wrote this and apparently she's got a similarly candy-centric Starmora Week fic planned. Any resemblance between this story's plot and that of hers is totally accidental, but please check hers out - I'm sure it's amazing. :)

Gamora’s “we need to talk” look never meant good things. Peter had become painfully aware of this firsthand, so its sudden appearance was a cause for alarm.

 

“What’d I do?” he sighed, preemptively accepting his inevitable defeat.

 

“You need to stop feeding Groot sugar,” Gamora began, fixing him with her most accusing glare. “He’s been bouncing off the walls for hours! Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep him from blowing something up on this ship when he’s being hyper?”

 

Peter’s face blanched. “He got into my candy _again?!?”_

“So you…left it somewhere he could get to it?” Gamora asked skeptically, not any less displeased that he hadn’t been willingly giving the toddler an endless supply of concentrated energy.

 

“I swear I thought he’d never find it there,” Peter whined. “Man, now it’s probably almost gone...”

 

“Well, wherever it was, it apparently wasn’t hidden well enough, and I expect you to remedy that immediately.”

 

“Kid can go trick-or-treating if he wants candy. Leave my stuff alone,” Peter said to himself, shaking his head in disgust.

 

“Whatever that means, I’m far less concerned about the fact that your candy stash is gone than I am about the fact that letting Groot get into it is a safety hazard.” Gamora began to saunter away huffily but paused in the doorway. “But if you want to keep him out of your stuff, you might as well suggest he…do whatever that is.”

 

Peter watched her turn away with a dumbstruck expression that laid his thoughts bare:

 

 _WHY did you not think of that a_ long _time ago?_

* * *

 

“And when we went to other houses, the people who lived in them would give us candy,” Peter explained animatedly to a wide-eyed Groot.

 

“Nuh-uh. You’re not feeding him any more sugar,” Rocket interrupted, lurking in the doorway.

 

“Oh, hey, Rocket,” Peter said cheekily. “I was just telling Groot how us Terrans have a holiday dedicated to scaring people, wearing disguises, and getting free food!”

 

“…continue,” Rocket replied. However loath he was to admit it, the concept clearly intrigued him.

 

“Oh, it’s _awesome,”_ Peter said, eyes lighting up. “It’s called Halloween. Kids dress up in costumes and walk around to different houses, and adults have to give them free candy!”

 

Rocket rolled his eyes. “You said it was about scaring people, and instead it’s about _candy_? This is getting less interesting by the second.”

 

“Oh, but we did scare people…well, actually, I was the one getting scared most of the time. They liked to prank me.” He stared at the ground for a moment, no doubt wondering why he’d chosen to give Rocket any ammunition, before regaining his animated brightness. “But it was still awesome! I could take a few pranks for a night of free candy.”

 

“They liked to prank you?” Rocket echoed, grinning wickedly. “ _That’s_ a story I actually want to know.”

 

Peter shot him an exasperated glare. “Dude, _no.”_

_“_ Hey, you started it,” Rocket sighed, shrugging.

 

“What has Quill started?” Drax interjected as he passed by in the outside hallway.

 

“He’s telling us about how Terra has this holiday where you get free candy and he used to get pranked as a kid,” Rocket explained smugly.

 

“They only did it because they were jealous of my superior costumes!” Peter protested. “I’d spend _weeks_ on my costumes. They were the best and everyone knew it. This one year I was a cowboy and I made these fake spurs out of a soda can, and another-“

 

“None of us have any idea what you’re talking about,” Rocket interrupted, oblivious boredom etched across his features.

 

“I remember you telling me about that,” Gamora cut in, joining the group in the common room. “Wasn’t that the year some kids threw eggs at your cousin Melrosie’s house?”

 

Peter’s face broke out in an ear-splitting grin. “Oh _yeah!_ I had this evil second cousin, Miranda, and that year they egged her house. I mean, they also egged _me,_ but still. It was _great.”_

 

“They egged a house? That is the kind of holiday I enjoy,” Drax commented approvingly, mercifully failing to mention Peter’s simultaneous egging.

 

“Don’t even think about it,” Peter warned them. “If you so much as _consider_ pulling anything like that around here, I’m going to make you regret every decision you’ve ever made.”

 

“Real tough talk coming from the guy who got egged,” Rocket cackled.

 

“Look, dude, I spent a _month_ on that costume, and they _egged it,”_ Peter snapped. “It was _not funny.”_

“Give me one good reason that isn’t the most hilarious thing you’ve ever heard,” Rocket challenged. Peter glared.

 

“Because it _happened to me,”_ he spat.

 

“Okay, okay, that’s enough,” Gamora cut in, shooting both a warning look. “What were you saying, Peter?”

 

“I’d always go all-out making my costume because I had a theory that adults would always give more more candy to kids with better costumes. For the last few years, I had the greatest costume in Missouri,” Peter told them, nostalgia evident in his voice. “I think I was right. The adults made a huge deal out of how great they always were, and I loved that. Even if the other kids would always egg me or throw water at me or something and they’d get ruined. One year they chased me into a graveyard tried to beat me up.”

 

“Children can be cruel,” Gamora said sympathetically. Though this holiday was foreign to her, in her own way, she knew the feeling.

 

“I personally still think that’s hilarious,” Rocket remarked. One look from Gamora quickly shut him up.

 

“But it was awesome anyway. And as I was saying, I kind of wish I could celebrate it again,” Peter continued.

 

“I am Groot,” Groot piped up, his first interjection in several minutes.

 

“Yup, you could get your own candy stash,” Peter replied. “That’s the beauty of Halloween. Unlimited free candy!”

 

“Nice as this all sounds, if you could manage to recreate a holiday that apparently requires the participation of an entire city on a ship, I talked to you about this candy thing,” Gamora reminded him. “It’s not safe-“

 

“Safety hazards are occasionally worth it, aren’t they?” Peter asked rhetorically.  

 

“I am Groot.”

 

“See? Groot thinks it’s a great idea!” Peter crowed.

 

“If I get to egg Quill, I’m down,” Rocket agreed.

 

“Sorry, Gamora,” Peter said, grinning cheekily. “You’re outvoted three to one.”

 

“Four,” Drax interjected unhelpfully.

 

Gamora let out a long sigh.

  
“You know you love me,” Peter teased.

 

“And that has _what_ to do with this situation?” Gamora deadpanned.

 

“Eugh,” Rocket spat. “The amount of sap in this room is suffocating me.”

 

“You wouldn’t deny me a little fun, would you?” Peter asked.

 

“I very much would, if it was a _safety hazard,”_ Gamora shot back.

 

“Oh, please. One box of Milk Duds and you’d be _sold,”_ Peter insisted.

 

Gamora’s lip curled into a half-amused smile, standing to leave. “You never stop finding ways to irritate me, Peter.”

                                                                 

“But would you want it any other way?” he called after her as she disappeared down the hall.

 

Smiling to herself, Gamora had to admit in the privacy of her thoughts that he’d hit the nail on the head. He never ran out of insane ideas or, for that matter, willing recipients of said ideas, but…

  
After all, she couldn’t say she was ever bored of him.  


End file.
